Thursday, June 24-26,2008: Om Sairam Darshan Update

Thursday, June 26,2008: Om Sairam dear Sai Family The Ramayana Sapthaha Yagnam is in full swing. Being the fifth day, and after the news spread to neighbouring towns, there are quite a lot of people for the Yagnam. There is a big group from Hyderabad as well. This afternoon, Swami came quite early, at 4:15 pm. The hall was almost full by then.. Beautiful Lord, preferred to be wheeled into the hall, after coming into the middle, He took a right turn skipping the gents side. click to enlarge picture and save as wallpaper After darshan rounds, Swami took a round within the verandah, speaking to the elderly people and again came on the stage.. The Veda chanting went on for 30 minutes as Swami watched all of us from the dias, called up some students and made some queries and blessed them with Pada Namaskar. It was close to 6 by the time the actual programme started.. This afternoon, as part of the Ramayana satsangs, it was the episode of Hanuman, the chapter known as SUNDARA KANDA. Hanuman is now very famous in the west, thanks to Mr.Obama for carrying the little statue of Hanuman with him.. The speaker who was blessed to speak in His immediate presence was Sri.Rao, from a place called Guntur, (for your records, Prof.Anil Kumar also hails from this place) in the state of Andhra Pradesh.. a learnt speaker and surprisingly has given 2000 talks on Ramayana and one would imagine how capable and able he could be. After taking permission and blessings from Swami, the speaker who had a sweet voice, spoke on the SUNDARA KANDA, in pure telugu. Out of Seven Kandas (sections, parts), this KANDA one wouldn't find the Hero of the Epic (Lord Rama). The story runs with just Sita and ardent devotee Hanuman. The Hero is in the Heart of Hanuman and is not seen out side. The speaker said, out of Seven Kandas of Ramayan, Sage Valmiki, the writer, called this particular part as SUNDARA (BEAUTIFUL) KANDA and it was bit of a risk. If a mother with 7 children says, my fifth child is beautiful, it does mean the remaining 6 are not beautiful. The speaker said, there are lot of reasons and supporting incidents for this Kanda to be called Sundara. The first and foremost is the devotion of Hanuman. If one loses someone, we sent some one who has seen the person, to trace him/her out. But in this case Hanuman had never seen Sita nor Hanuman was related to Lord Rama and yet Rama had immense faith and confidence in Hanuman, which itself, according to Valmiki is Beautiful. When discussions were going on as who will go and how one would go to Lanka, the kingdom of King Ravana, all the vanaras (monkeys) showed their strengths and courage. Hanuman out played every one and it was decided it will be Hanuman who will occupy the driver's seat. Sri Rao, put the whole story in a very simple and bit humorous way. He said, usually when we go for a heavy and challenging task, we always pray to the person (GOD or GURU) whom we know, but it seems Hanuman took the clever way. Sri Rao, said, one should pray to our enemies first , who would be probable candidates for obstructing our tasks and to start with Hanuman first prayed to Sun God. If one looks at Sun for a second without batting eyelids, it seems he considers it as a defeat and now Hanuman will be flying so high that He would be close to Sun and this would make Sun GOD bit uncomfortable... more over, during his child hood , when Hanuman knew he could fly, he tried to swallow Sun, and to pacify Sun, Hanuman prayed to him saying He is going on a very important task, some thing to do with Lord Rama, who belongs to Sun Dynasty and in a way your relative. The next person whom Hanuman prayed was VAYU, wind who happens to be Hanuman's father.. Hanuman also prayed to Indra and Brahma and took their blessings. All the Vanaras were so co-operative and prayed for Hanuman. Praying to the Sea, Vanaras said, if Hanuman, on his way to Lanka, gets tired, pls let him rest on the little mountain in the middle of the sea. Lord Rama gave a ring to Hanuman, for Sita to believe that it is Rama's messenger and not a demon. The speaker later spoke on how Hanuman gets into the palace of Ravana.. Hanuman first thinks to enter through the main gate, but decides against it, as the entrance from the main gate should be done during weddings, invitations and other auspicious occasions and now he is one a very different mission so decides to enter from the back door. The speaker said, Valmiki, while describing Lanka, always said, the walls of the palace is studded with precious gems, diamonds. Bricks and doors are made of pure gold and so on.. THe speaker said, when one describes the house in such a way, it means the people living inside are not good people. It was 10 past 7pm by then and Swami knew it was bit long session for devotees who were sitting since 2pm. He sent a word with other man and the speaker, obligingly cut short his story which was beautifully said and well scripted as well... After the talk, Swami immediately asked for Arathi and quick prasadam were given and the SUNDARA day ended at 7:15 quite long but we had long darshan of our Lord as well, so no complaints.... thus ended another beautiful day and thought provoking and value added Ramayan Satsang. eye witness account 26th June submitted by a member of SBOI-Group

Tuesday, June 24,2008: On this third day of the Ramayana Saptaham, the proceedings began in the morning with Vishu Sahasranama chanting by the entire congregation at 7.50 am, forming a laksharchana. Bhagawan arrived when the morning Bhajans commenced after the laksharchana. In the evening, Bhagawan once again sat for a few minutes onstage after His darshan round in the chair and returned to the stage from the interview room to start the proceedings at 5.15 pm. Today's speaker was Sri S. Ranganath garu from Bangalore, who spoke in English about the Aranya Kanda for 45 minutes, noting various points of interest in Valmiki's poetry. Bhajans commenced at 6 pm, and Bhagawan accepted Arati at 6.30 pm. - Prasanthi Bulletin - Also read more Sai News from today (below) - eye witness account 24th June submitted by a member of SBOI-Group "Om Sai Ram dear Sai Family, the third day marked the ARANYA KANDA episode. SWAMI blessed the vast gathering with His divine darshan at 4.30 pm. the blessed speaker for today was Mr. Ranga a learned scholar and a faculty of Sanskrit in NMKRV college for women in Bangalore, the same campus which was blessed by the Divine presence 17 years ago. After taking blessings from Swami to the delight of non telugu speakers he gave a talk in English. The topic for today covered the incidents that occurred during Lord Rama's stay in the forest with a mention of Surpanaka's incident, Sabari's hospitality, the golden deer episode, the kidnapping of Sita, Bird Jatayu's heroism and the way Rama conferred liberation and so on. The speaker was of the opinion that Aranyakanda is the nucleus of Ramayana, as the crux of the problem, (kidnapping of Sita) happened in this part of Ramayana...as they say old habits don't die hard, Mr. Ranga being a Prof. in Sanskrit for many years, most of his talk was in Sanskrit (the language spoken by Gods) and excellent interpretations in English. even though 45 mins is just not enough Mr. Ranga did a great job and sure enough he got a word of appreciation and a pat on his shoulder, from Lord Sai Rama Himself." Eye witness account 24th June sent by group member Satish Naik to SBOI-Group